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Boarding Guide
You keep hearing about Boarding and know what it is, but how in the world does it work in Pirates of the Burning Sea? Boarding Purchase the right shot. First, make sure you have some Grapeshot or Canister Shot (Anti-Personnel) and some some Star Shot or Bar Shot (Anti-Sail/Rigging) as well to slow down your prey before taking out her crew. Keep in mind, when you purchase any type of shot you are purchasing 1 crate of 100 units of shot. After you purchase the crate, it goes into your ship hold or your warehouse. Now, you must right click the crate, then left click on "create new item". You now have 100 units of Grapeshot in your ship hold (every 100 units of shot have a cargo weight of 1 unit). Now, drag and drop the Grapeshot icon from your cargo hold window to your hotbar so you can "load" it when you are in combat. Boarding UI Everyone starts with this skill, you DO NOT need to earn it. Keep in mind, you will only be able to board when you are within 50 yards of your Target. At that point, the Grappling Hook button will appear below the ship UI. If you hover the cursor over the Hook you will see a percentage chance to Board the Target, and you can simply click (I found that it does not always work on the first click so be ready to click a couple times) on the Hook to attempt boarding. I believe the skill icon is also available to use on your hotbar. It looks like a pirate swinging on a rope. You can drag this from your Skills window to your hotbar as a backup. The battle begins! When you start a battle and you plan to board the enemy straight away, load your Dismantling Shot either Chain Shot,Star Shot or Bar Shot before you get into range so that it will be loaded and ready to fire. I recommend Star because it does the most damage, but it has the shortest range also. In fact this type of shot has a much shorter range than Heavy Round Shot, about half. When you are in range fire your Dismantling Shot to slow down your prey so they will be easier to board. It may take 4-6 shots to get their Sails/Masts down to 50% or less. By now you can load your Grapeshot or Canister Shot. As you position for the boarding fire 1-2 broadsides with the Anti-Personnel Shot. This should cut their crew by about 50-90% (for smaller ships). Keep in mind that you are only injuring most of their crew and they will regain health and crew quickly, so be prepared to fire more Anti-Personnel Shot as needed. Finally, time to Board! Now, try to maneuver your ship into position slightly ahead and along side, your enemy without taking too many broadsides from her in the process. Ideally, you want to cut them off stopping with your broadside facing their bow. Once you close to within 50 yards you will see the Grappling Hook icon light up. Your objective is to be going the same relative speed as your target. The slower the better, STOPPED IS IDEAL. The Grappling icon should change colors depending on how well your chances are for success and if you hover your cursor over the icon a percentage will be displayed. Now is the time to use your grappling & boarding skills if you are high enough level to acquire them, like Secure Grappling & Bloodthirsty Boarders. Wait until you can get the UI green about 65% or more before clicking the Grappling Hook . You will go into a separate boarding instance. Your crew will be on one side of the ship, the enemy crew will be on the other side of the ship. The amount of crew you and your enemy have is based on how much crew you had in the ship battle. If the enemy crew has under 20 crew in the boarding battle, they will have no reinforcement waves, which makes the fight alot quicker. The aim of boarding the enemy ship is to kill the enemy captain. When the battle starts, the two crews will run towards each other and start fighting. Your best bet is to stay behind your crew when they run in. If there is no reinforcement waves for the enemy captain (You can check on the Reinforcement Waves window on your right), and you kill the captain, you will win the boarding battle, but if there is one or more reinforcement waves for the enemy captain, they will just respawn in 10 seconds. If you die in a boarding battle, you will respawn in 10 seconds on your side of the ship. If you lose the battle, you will go back to the ship battle, next to the enemy ship, and you will not be able to re-board for 30 seconds (I think its 30 seconds, anyway.). If you win the battle, you will re-appear in the ship battle, and you will have loot to claim, and the enemy ship will be a derelict (Which navy, freetraders, and privateers can claim as commendations or pennants.)You can also use Keg of Kill-Devil to improve your crew's boarding offense. Improving Boarding Skill By using certain types of Outfittings like Battlements, Bulwarks, Grapples & Ladders, and Grapple Defenses as well as Skills like Blood Thirsty Boarders and Secure Grappling (which are available at level 15) you can greatly improve your Boarding Skill. Category:General Guides